PRAISE FOR
THE PEOPLE RELOADED:
THE GREEN MOVEMENT AND THE
STRUGGLE FOR IRANS FUTURE
In bringing together these essential texts from and about Irans Green movement, Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel have opened the door for critical engagement with one of the most significant social movements in the Middle East today.
Orhan Pamuk
The editors of this collection have put together an extraordinary resource to help further the development of democracy and social justice in Iran. It brings together vital contributions to the debate about Irans future and invites all those concerned with this future to become active participants in its definition.
David Held, London School of Economics & Political Science
This anthology illuminates the ethical demands at the core of Irans Green Movement, one of the most vibrant and promising social forces on the global horizon. The People Reloaded plunges us into a defining conflict of modern political history: how nonviolent democratic resistance might succeed in the face of a repressive regime. Defeat often seems inevitable and change never seems to come fast enough. And then, all of a sudden, the dam bursts, time accelerates and nothing can stop it. This welcome volume provides an anatomy of how this process is unfolding in Iran today, whatever its eventual outcome.
Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research
Words, yes, words and justice and bodiesthats all the Iranian human earthquake called the Green Movement has had on its side from the start of its peaceful insurrection. The bodies have been beaten and jailed and persecuted and the justice is a long time coming, but the words, the indispensable words that have always been at the heart of that countrys history, the words are finally available in one crucial and moving and thought-provoking book. Here is proofas if Gandhi needed proof, as if King needed proofthat the people of Iran will prevail.
Ariel Dorfman
The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Irans Future includes very insightful, informative, and original brief analyses by outstanding Iran specialists such as Asef Bayat, Ervand Abrahamian, Fred Halliday, Reza Aslan, Juan Cole, and Robin Wright. Readers may take their pick among numerous readable articles from inside and outside Iran and find new and varied views that shed much light on the genesis, development, and future of this important movement.
Nikki Keddie, author of Modern Iran:
Roots and Results of Revolution
For all those who are interested in the new shapes of democracy in our world, and who felt deep solidarity with the Iranian protests last year, and horror at their suppression, this collection offers precious insights into the historical sources and future potentials of this great movement.
Charles Taylor, McGill University
The events of June 2009 marked a turning point in Iranian politics. This timely collection of essays and articles is of capital importance not only for all those who take an interest in Iranian affairs, but also for students of democratization and of social movements.
Houchang E. Chehabi, Boston University
This anthology on the Iranian Green Movement is the most impressive collection of writings on one of the most inspiring and democratic movements of our time. This volume is a rare resource for anyone who is interested in the understanding of post-Islamist social movements.
Ali Mirsepassi, New York University
THE PEOPLE RELOADED
2010 Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel
First Melville House printing: December 2010
Melville House Publishing
145 Plymouth Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
www.mhpbooks.com
is an extension of this copyright page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The people reloaded: the green movement and the struggle for Irans future / edited by Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-61219-021-1
1. Green movement--Political aspects--Iran. 2. Iran--Politics and government--1997- 3. Political participation--Iran. 4. Democracy--Iran. I. Hashemi, Nader, 1966- II. Postel, Danny.
GE199.I7P46 2010
322.440955--dc22
2010046822
v3.1
THOSE WHO STOOD UP FOR TOLERANCE
Hafez
May days of loves reunions be remembered
May those days be remembered, may they always be remembered.
My mouth is poisoned by the bitterness of grief;
May the toasts of those happy drinkers be remembered.
Although my comrades are free from remembering me,
I remember them all constantly.
Though Im captured and bound by this misery,
May the attempts of those who stood up for tolerance be remembered.
Even though a hundred rivers constantly flow from my eyes,
Zayanderud irrigates for those who make gardens, may it be remembered.
From now on the secret of Hafez will remain unspoken.
Have pity on those who must keep secrets; may that be remembered.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel
PART I
DEMOCRACY IS IN THE STREETS: THE BIRTH OF A MOVEMENT
Why Are the Iranians Dreaming Again?
Ali Alizadeh
Cultural Jiu-Jitsu and the Iranian Greens
Charles Kurzman
The Gandhian Moment
Ramin Jahanbegloo
Irans Green Movement as a Civil Rights Movement
Hamid Dabashi
A Specter Is Haunting IranThe Specter of Mossadeq
Stephen Kinzer
Slaps in the Face of Reason: Tehran, June 2009
Kaveh Ehsani, Arang Keshavarzian and Norma Claire Moruzzi
Feminist Waves in the Iranian Green Tsunami?
Golbarg Bashi
A Wave for Life and Liberty: The Green Movement and Irans Incomplete Revolution
Asef Bayat
Irans Tide of History: Counter-Revolution and After
Fred Halliday
I Am Not a Speck of Dirt, I Am a Retired Teacher
Ervand Abrahamian
Berlusconi in Tehran
Slavoj iek
Counter-Revolution and Revolt in Iran: An Interview with Iranian Political Scientist Hossein Bashiriyeh
Danny Postel
PART II
BEYOND WHERE IS MY VOTE?A GREEN VISION TAKES SHAPE
The Key Features of the Green Movement: An Interview with Dissident Cleric Mohsen Kadivar
Rooz Online
The Green Path of Hope
Muhammad Sahimi
The People Reloaded
Morad Farhadpour and Omid Mehrgan
The Hinge of History
Roger Cohen
Multiplied, Not Humiliated: Broken Taboos in Post-Election Iran
Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Ayatollah Montazeris Brave Struggle for Justice
Payam Akhavan
Delegitimizing the Islamic Republic of Iran with a
Fatwa: The Significance of Ayatollah Montazeris Post-Election Legal Ruling of July 2009
Ahmad Sadri and Mahmoud Sadri
The Decades First Revolution? The Phenomenon of the Green Ganglion
Gary Sick
An Opposition Manifesto Emerges: Statement by Five Religious Intellectuals
Muhammad Sahimi
From Birmingham to Tehran: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Green Movement
Sohrab Ahmari
A Movement Centuries in the Making
Hamid Dabashi